Economiser
Economisers (UK/international), or economizers (US), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform another useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, powerplant, and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) uses are discussed in this article. In simple terms, an economiser is a heat exchanger. Stirling engine Robert Stirling's innovative contribution to the design of hot air engines of 1816 was what he called the 'Economiser'. Now known as the regenerator, it stored heat from the hot portion of the engine as the air passed to the cold side, and released heat to the cooled air as it returned to the hot side. This innovation improved the efficiency of Stirling's engine enough to make it commercially successful in particular applications, and has since been a component of every air engine that is called a Stirling engine. Boilers In boilers, economisers are heat exchange devices that heat fluids, usually water, up to but not normally beyond the boiling point of that fluid. Economisers are so named because they can make use of the enthalpy in fluid streams that are hot, but not hot enough to be used in a boiler, thereby recovering more useful enthalpy and improving the boiler's efficiency. They are a device fitted to a boiler which saves energy by using the exhaust gases from the boiler to preheat the cold water used to fill it (the feed water) History The first successful economiser design was used to increase the steam-raising efficiency of the boilers of stationary steam engines. It was patented by Edward Green in 1845, and since then has been known as Green's economiser. It consisted of an array of vertical cast iron tubes connected to a tank of water above and below, between which the boiler's exhaust gases passed. This is the reverse arrangement to that usually but not always seen in the fire tubes of a boiler; there the hot gases usually pass through tubes immersed in water, whereas in an economizer the water passes through tubes surrounded by hot gases. While both are heat exchange devices, in a boiler the burning gases heat the water to produce steam to drive an engine, whether piston or turbine, whereas in an economiser, some of the heat energy that would otherwise all be lost to the atmosphere is instead used to heat the water and/or air that will go into the boiler, thus saving fuel. The most successful feature of Green's design of economiser was its mechanical scraping apparatus, which was needed to keep the tubes free of deposits of soot. Economisers were eventually fitted to virtually all stationary steam engines in the decades following Green's invention. Some preserved stationary steam engine sites still have their Green's economisers although usually they are not used. One such preserved site is the Claymills Pumping Engines Trust in Staffordshire, England, which is in the process of restoring one set of economisers and the associated steam engine which drove them. Powerplants Modern-day boilers, such as those in coal-fired power stations, are still fitted with economisers which are descendants of Green's original design. In this context they are often referred to as feedwater heaters and heat the condensate from turbines before it is pumped to the boilers. Economisers are commonly used as part of a heat recovery steam generator in a combined cycle power plant. In an HRSG, water passes through an economiser, then a boiler and then a superheater. The economiser also prevents flooding of the boiler with liquid water that is too cold to be boiled given the flow rates and design of the boiler. A common application of economisers in steam powerplants is to capture the waste heat from boiler stack gases (flue gas) and transfer it to the boiler feedwater. This raises the temperature of the boiler feedwater, lowering the needed energy input, in turn reducing the firing rates needed for the rated boiler output. Economisers lower stack temperatures which may cause condensation of acidic combustion gases and serious equipment corrosion damage if care is not taken in their design and material selection. HVAC Air-side economisers HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) can save energy in buildings by using cool outside air as a means of cooling the indoor space. When the enthalpy of the outside air is less than the enthalpy of the recirculated air, conditioning the outside air is more energy efficient than conditioning recirculated air. When the outside air is both sufficiently cool and sufficiently dry (depending on the climate) the amount of enthalpy in the air is acceptable and no additional conditioning of it is needed; this portion of the air-side economizer control scheme is called free cooling. Air-side economisers can reduce HVAC energy costs in cold and temperate climates while also potentially improving indoor air quality, but are most often not appropriate in hot and humid climates. With the appropriate controls, economisers can be used in climates which experience various weather systems. For information on how economisers and other controls can affect energy efficiency and indoor air quality in buildings, see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, "Energy Cost and IAQ Performance of Ventilation Systems and Controls Study." http://www.epa.gov/iaq/largebldgs/energy_cost_and_iaq/index.html When the outside air's dry- and wet-bulb temperatures are low enough, water-side economisers use water cooled by a wet cooling tower or a dry cooler (also called fluid cooler) to cool buildings without operating a chiller. They are historically known as the strainer cycle, but the water-side economiser is not a true thermodynamic cycle. Also, instead of passing the cooling tower water through a strainer and then to the cooling coils, which causes their fouling, more often a plate-and-frame heat exchanger is inserted between the cooling tower and chilled water loops. Good controls, and valves or dampers, as well as maintenance, are needed to ensure proper operation of the air- and water-side economisers. Refrigeration Another use of the term occurs in industrial refrigeration, specifically vapor-compression refrigeration. Normally, the economiser concept is applied when a particular design or feature on the refrigeration cycle, allows a reduction either in the amount of energy used from the power grid; in the size of the components (basically the gas compressor’s nominal capacity) used to produce refrigeration, or both. For example, for a walk-in freezer that is kept at -20°F, the main refrigeration components would include: an evaporator coil (a dense arrangement of pipes containing refrigerant and thin metal fins used to remove heat from inside the freezer), fans to blow air over the coil and around the box, an air-cooled condensing unit sited outdoors, and valves and piping. The condensing unit would include a compressor and a coil and fans to exchange heat with the ambient air. An economiser display takes advantage of the fact that refrigeration systems have increasing efficiencies at increasing pressures and temperatures. The power the gas compressor needs is strongly correlated to both the ratio and the difference, between the discharge and the suction pressures (as well as to other features like the refrigerant’s heat capacity and the type of compressor). Low temperature systems such as freezers move less fluid in same volumes. That means the compressor’s pumping is less efficient on low temperature systems. This phenomenon is notorious when taking in account that the evaporation temperature for a walk-in freezer at -20°F may be around -35°F. Systems with economisers aim to produce part of the refrigeration work on high pressures, condition in which gas compressors are normally more efficient. Depending of the application, this technology either allows smaller compression capacities to be able to supply enough pressure and flow for a system that normally would require bigger compressors; increases the capacity of a system that without economiser would produce less refrigeration, or allows the system to produce the same amount of refrigeration using less power. The economiser concept is linked to subcooling as the condensed liquid line temperature is usually higher than that on the evaporator, making it a good place to apply the notion of increasing efficiencies.Danfos, The Influence of Subcoling on Refrigeration Control Quality. Page 2. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/102827267/The-influence-of-subcooling-on-refrigeration-control-quality Recalling the walk-in freezer example, the normal temperature of the liquid line in that system is around 60°F or even higher (it varies depending on the condensing temperature). That condition is by far less hostile to produce refrigeration, than the evaporator at -35°F. Economiser setups in refrigeration Several displays permit the refrigeration cycle to work as economisers, and benefit from this idea. The design of this kind of systems demands certain expertise on the matter, and the manufacture of some of the gear, particular finesse and durability. Pressure drop, electric valve controlling and oil drag, must all be attended with special caution. and two separate stages of gas compression.]] Two staged systems and boosters A system is said to be in a two staged set up if two separate gas compressors in serial display work together to produce the compression. A normal booster installation is a two staged system that receives fluid that cools down the discharge of the first compressor, before arriving to the second compressor’s input. The fluid that arrives to the interstage of both compressors comes from the liquid line and is normally controlled by expansion, pressure and solenoid valves. booster has a subcooling heat exchanger (SHX) that provides subcooling for the condensed liquid line.]] A standard two staged cycle of this kind will possess an expansion valve that expands and modulates the amount of refrigerant incoming at the interstage. As the fluid arriving to the interstage expands, it will tend to evaporate, producing an overall temperature drop and cooling the second compressor’s suction when mixing with the fluid discharged by the first compressor. This kind of set up may have a heat exchanger between the expansion and the interstage, situation in which that second evaporator may serve to produce refrigeration as well, though not as cool as the main evaporator (for example to produce air conditioning or for keeping fresh products). A two staged system is said to be set up in a booster display with subcooling, if the refrigerant arriving to the interstage passes through a subcooling heat exchanger that subcools the main liquid line arriving to the main evaporator of the same system.Danfos, The Influence of Subcoling on Refrigeration Control Quality. Page 6. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/102827267/The-influence-of-subcooling-on-refrigeration-control-quality manufacturers offer them with economiser. This systems can use flash-gas for the economiser input.]] Economiser gas compressors The need to use two compressors when considering a booster set-up tends to increase the cost of a refrigeration system. Besides the gear’s price, two staged systems need special attention over synchronization, pressure control and lubrication. To reduce these costs, special gear has been elaborated. economiser reduces the amount of gas compressors in the system.]]Economiser screw compressors are being built by several manufacturers like Refcomp, Mycom, Bitzer and York. These machines merge both compressors of a two staged system into one screw compressor and have two inputs: the main suction and an interstage side entrance for higher pressure gas.AC&R Journal: Design and Application of Small Screw Compressors , Economiser Operation (Hermann Renz). http://www.ishrae.in/journals/2000apr/article01.html This means there is no need to install two compressors and still benefit from the booster concept. There are two types of economiser setups for these compressors, flash and subcooling. The latter works under the same principle as the two staged booster displays with subcooling. The flash economiser is different because it doesn’t use a heat exchanger to produce the subcooling. Instead, it has a flash chamber or tank, in which flash gas is produced to lower the temperature of the liquid before the expansion. The flash gas that is produced in this tank leaves the liquid line and goes to the economiser entrance of the screw compressor.SWEP, Refrigeration Systems: Two Staged Systems Subcooling and refrigeration cycle optimizers All previous systems produce an economiser effect by using compressors, meters, valves and heat exchangers within the refrigeration cycle. Depending on the system, in some refrigeration cycles it may be convenient to produce the economiser using an independent refrigeration mechanism. Such is the case of subcooling the liquid line by any other means that draw the heat out of the main system. For example, a heat exchanger that preheats cold water needed for another process or human use, may withdraw the heat from the liquid line, effectively subcooling the line and increasing the system’s capacity.APS Bussinss Service, Refrigeration Efficiency Measures Recently, machines exclusively designated for this purpose have been developed. In Chile, the manufacturer EcoPac Systems developed a cycle optimizer able to stabilize the temperature of the liquid line and allowing either an increase in the refrigeration capacity of the system, or a reduction of the power consumption.Pesca y Medioambiente Nº45, New Challenges on Refrigeration, Cycle Optimizers.http://es.calameo.com/read/0009763410a8c5a4f5a56 Such systems have the advantage of not interfering with the original design of the refrigeration system being an interesting alternative for expanding single staged systems that don not possess an economiser compressor.AQUA News, Efficiency and Saving in Refrigeration Internal heat exchangers Subcooling may also be produced by superheating the gas leaving the evaporator and heading to the gas compressor.Refrigerant Subcooling and System Efficiency, The influence of refrigerant subcooling on system efficiency. These systems withdraw heat from the liquid line but heat up the gas compressors suction. This is a very common solution to insure that gas reaches the compressor and liquid reaches the valve. It also allows maximum heat exchanger use as minimizes the portion of the heat exchangers used to change the temperature of the fluid, and maximizes the volume in which the refrigerant changes its phase (phenomena involving much more heat flow, the base principle of vapor-compression refrigeration). An internal heat exchanger is simply a type of heat exchanger that uses the cold gas leaving the evaporator coil to cool the high-pressure liquid that is headed into the beginning of the evaporator coil via an expansion device. The gas is used to chill a chamber that normally has a series of pipes for the liquid running through it. The superheated gas then proceeds on to the compressor. The subcooling term refers to cooling the liquid below its boiling point. 10°F of subcooling means it is 10°F colder than boiling at a given pressure. As it represents a difference of temperatures, the subcooling value won’t change if it is measured on the absolute scale, or the relative scale (10°F of subcooling equals 10ºR of subcooling). See also *Countercurrent exchange *Regenerative heat exchanger *Feedwater heater *Thermal efficiency References * Category:Energy recovery Category:Thermodynamics Category:Energy conversion Category:Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning